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Questions resurface about Ashley Smith’s birth mother

Dr. Cindy Presse, the chief psychologist at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon, said she tried to find out who Ashley Smith's birth mother was but didn't get an answer from the late teen's adoptive mother. (Donovan Vincent / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Questions surrounding the identity of Ashley Smith’s birth mother continue to dog the teen’s inquest, and surfaced again in testimony Monday from the chief psychologist at the Regional Psychiatric Centre, where Ashley was once a patient.

Dr. Cindy Presse, psychologist at the secure forensic hospital in Saskatoon, told the Toronto inquest she got a “blank look’’ from Ashley’s adoptive mother, Coralee, when the question of the teen’s biological mother was raised. Presse said Coralee understood full well what she was asking, but the blank look said “I’m not telling you,’’ Presse told the inquest.

“Something was stopping this (conversation) from going any further, but I don’t know (what),’’ Presse told Marg Creal, coroner’s counsel for the inquest.

Presse told the inquest the discussion came up on one of the days Coralee visited RPC to see
Ashley
, between Feb. 25 and March 2, 2007. Presse couldn’t recall the exact day, but said it was an afternoon, and a nurse at the centre, someone Ashley spoke to a lot, was the third person present.

“I felt it was important that this (family question) be clarified and out in the open,’’ Presse told the inquest, explaining why she met with
Coralee
. Presse told the inquest she believes it’s important to an individual’s understanding of themselves to know where they came from. She thought the information could answer questions surrounding Smith’s extremely challenging behaviours.

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The family issue definitely affected Ashley’s state of mind at the time, Presse testified.

The inquest has previously heard that Ashley confided to others — including her guards — during her time in federal prison that she was deeply troubled over not knowing the full story of her family history. Earlier this year in her testimony at the inquest, Coralee said she promised to give Ashley information about her birth mother when the teen was older.

The inquest heard Monday that on March 2, 2007, the nurse who was present at the meeting with Coralee wrote at 2 a.m. that Ashley was feeling “hurt and mistrust’’ toward her family about who her real mom was.

“Stated that she feels and knows that her real mom is her sister, but denial from her family. They told her just to live with what she knows,’’ the nurse wrote.

The question of Smith’s birth mother has caused controversy at the inquest probing the teen’s self-asphyxiation death on Oct. 19, 2007 at a Kitchener prison for women.
Coralee
adopted Ashley in New Brunswick when Ashley was just a few days old. Ashley was later led to believe that Coralee was actually her grandmother, and that Coralee’s daughter, Donna, 19 years Ashley’s senior, was Ashley’s birth mom.

In a move that raised eyebrows at the inquest, Dr. John Carlisle, the presiding coroner, stopped two jurors when they tried to ask Coralee about Ashley’s family background. He said the issue was a family matter.

Donna has a son who is a few years older than Ashley, whom Coralee described in her testimony as Ashley’s “cousin.’’ Ashley was very close to the young boy.

Presse said Ashley commented to her that when she entered the youth correctional system in New Brunswick at age 15, a guard assumed she — Ashley — was the young boy’s sister because she looked like him.

Presse also recalled first impressions Ashley made on her, arriving at RPC a few days before Christmas 2006 from a women’s prison in Nova Scotia. Presse gave her some magazines, but Ashley soon used the pages to cover her cell window and the surveillance camera.

Ashley also deliberately broke a sprinkler head.

When Presse spoke to the teen about her poor behaviour, Ashley responded in a spoiled, childish way, the psychologist testified.

“I realized she was playing games,” Presse said, adding it was as though Ashley was trying to bargain with staff at the hospital. Still, Presse also noted that Smith could present as bright and reasonable.

Ashley told the psychologist about being hyperactive as a child, and being prescribed Ritalin but said it didn’t work.

Presse testified the teen also told her she didn’t relate to her stepfather, who at some point previously had been annoyed with Ashley for running up a bill of more than $1,000 chatting on the Internet while she lived at home.

Presse testified that when she first met Ashley at the psychiatric centre, the teen “stood out” physically, because unlike the majority of patients at the hospital — of aboriginal background, or from the street — Ashley was Caucasian, “fresh-faced’’ and had no tattoos.

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